Welcome to episode 298 of Live Happy Now.

Anxiety affects millions of people, and it's no secret that the pandemic and other events of the past year have not exactly helped.

This is your host, Paula Phelps, and this week we're talking to Dr. Lauren Cook about how anxiety in itself has become an epidemic.

Lauren is not only a therapist, speaker, and author, but she also knows firsthand what it feels

like to experience anxiety.

So she's here this week to talk about the uptick she's seen in anxiety, explain more about

why it's so common, and offer some solutions for dealing

with it right now.

Lauren, welcome back to Live Happy Now.

Paula, I'm thrilled to be back.

Well, we had talked before about toxic positivity.

And to keep that upbeat thing going, we're going to talk about anxiety today.

You know, as we enter 2021, I've seen so many stories that it's talking about the high levels of anxiety that people are experiencing.

And is this something that you're seeing a lot of in your practice?

It really is.

You know, over 40 million Americans experience anxiety.

And what's been really fascinating for me to see in my practice is that at the beginning of the pandemic,

I'd say sometimes anxiety levels went down a little bit because many people got to be kind of safe in their homes, tucked away.

But then as the pandemic has gone on, and especially as

we start thinking about going back to reality as that's getting closer and closer, I'm seeing

anxiety really start to creep back up for people because a lot of us have lost touch with our

social skills. We're not sure how to operate in this new way. So I'm seeing a lot of us have lost touch with our social skills. We're not sure how to operate in this new way.

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